Khalil al-Tafakji, expert of settlement affairs, said that Israeli recent settlement plans aim at isolating east Jerusalem from the West Bank and annexing it to Israel in order not to become the capital of the projected Palestinian State.

Those plans come within the Israeli government’s series of procedures to build 54,000 new housing units in Occupied Jerusalem by 2020, he added.

In his talk to the PIC reporter, Tafakji pointed out that the building project of 770 units in Gilo Settlement along with what is being done in the settlements of Ramot, Ramat Shlomo and Givat Zeev are projects pre-planned in 2012 and 2013.

The Israeli government approved on Thursday the construction of two towers in Pisgat Ze'ev settlement in northern Occupied Jerusalem.

Israeli municipality had earlier submitted another project of establishing 2500 new housing units extending from Gilo settlement to the tunnels area over Beit Jala and Bethlehem lands to the south of Occupied Jerusalem.

Sheikh Kamal al-Khatib, deputy head of the Islamic Movement in the 1948 occupied lands, has called on all Palestinians to head en masse for the Aqsa Mosque on Sunday to protect it against intended mass desecration by Jewish settlers and officials.

In press remarks to Qpress news website, Sheikh Khatib said that extremist Jewish groups as well as religious figures and Knesset members declared their intents to defile the Aqsa Mosque compound to commemorate what they called the destruction of the alleged first and second temples.

He warned the Israeli government of playing with fire and overstepping all red lines through its persistence in violating the Islamic sanctity of the Aqsa Mosque, recalling what had been once said by former Shin Bet chief Carmi Gillon that the continued targeting of the Aqsa Mosque would lead the Israeli people to a new catastrophe.

Israeli extremist settlers tore their clothes right as they broke into the holy al-Aqsa Mosque on Thursday morning.

Over 70 Israeli fanatic settlers stormed the al-Aqsa in three groups and tore their clothes at one of the al-Aqsa gates before they performed sacrilegious rituals.

Over recent days, Muslim worshipers and activists called for intensifying vigil at the al-Aqsa place of worship so as to defend the site against projected Israeli mass-break-ins to mark the so-called Destruction of the Temple Mount anniversary.

114 Israelis including 101 settlers and 13 members of Israel Antiquities Authority Wednesday stormed the plazas of the Aqsa Mosque under protection by Israeli policemen who closed the al-Magharebah gate.

Meanwhile, Israeli police prevented the completion of electricity maintenance works inside the holy site, according to Media and Public Relations Official at the Awqaf Department Firas al-Dibis, who was deported from the Aqsa.

The so-called "Temple Mount" groups announced on Wednesday a program of massive incursions into the Aqsa Mosque over this week in preparation for the big incursion to take place next Sunday in commemoration of what they call the Destruction of the Temple.

The Islamic Higher Committee condemned the blatant intervention by the Israeli occupation authorities (IOA) represented in arresting maintenance technicians and preventing renovation works at the Aqsa as well as exiling its guards.

The committee held the IOA fully responsible for any damage to the Muslims’ holy site or any tension that may result.

Dozens of extremist settlers, accompanied by Israeli intelligence agents, stormed Al Aqsa Mosque on Tuesday morning, via the Mughrabi gate, amid intensive military presence in the Old City district of annexed East Jerusalem.

At 7.30 am, Israeli police opened the gate and spread out special forces and rapid intervention units and individuals in Al Aqsa’s yards to give the highest protection to the raiders.

Media expert in the affairs of Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa, Mahmoud Abu Atta, told Al Ray Palestinian Media Agency that 154 extremist settlers, including seven intelligence agents, stormed into the mosque in large groups, and took a provocative tour around the courtyards, taking photos amid chanting Talmudic slogans.

Muslim devotees confronted them with Takbeer (chants of “Allahu Akhbar! (God is Greatest!)”

According to Al Ray Palestinian Media Agency, Israeli authorities seek, by such intrusions, to devote the temporal and spatial division of Al- Aqsa mosque compound and Judaize Jerusalem.

Al-Aqsa Mosque is the third holiest site in Islam and is also venerated as Judaism’s most holy place. Disputes surrounding visitation to the site have historically flared tensions in the occupied Palestinian territory.

In 2003, the Israeli government unilaterally decided — despite the objections of the Islamic Endowments Department — to allow non-Muslim visitors into the complex.

Since then, under increasingly right-wing Israeli governments, extremist Jewish settlers have been allowed into the site in ever greater numbers — usually protected by Israeli security forces — while Palestinian access to the site has become increasingly restricted.

Christians outside of the Levant remain divided on the issue, as biblical end times prophecy states: “I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.” ~Revelation 21:22

This past Thursday, Israeli police continued their aggression against the mosque and the staff of the Rehabilitation Committee. Six of the staff, including the director of the committee, were taken into.

For the second day in a row, the Israeli police prevented the committee staff from completing the renovation works inside the Dome of the Rock, at the mosque compound.

Media expert in the affairs of Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa mosque, Mahmud Abu Atta, said that “Israeli police had arrested both of the director of the committee, Bassam al Hallaq and other five employees including: Mohammad al-Dabbagh, Suleiman Abdullatif, Moatasem Karama, Anass al-Dabbagh and Mahmud Annata.”

Israeli occupation forces broke into the Dome of the Rock in the morning and halted the reconstruction works, while detaining six of the rehabilitation staff and taking them to Al Selsela Gate police station, Abu Atta added.

Abu Atta said “The aggression of the Israeli occupation against the Islamic Waqf officials including the Rehabilitation Committee and Al-Aqsa mosque guards is completely unprecedented and dangerous.”

On today’s intrusion, he confirmed that 21 Israeli settlers had broken into the mosque yards and taken a provocative tour around it. They also performed Talmudic religious rituals at Al- Rahma gate, east of Al- Aqsa, according to Abu Atta.

He added that troops also deployed special forces inside the courtyards .

Israeli police deported Isa Salhab, an observer of the Rehabilitation Committee in the Islamic Waqf, from al-Aqsa for two weeks.

On Wednesday, Israeli police released, with no conditions, the director of the Rehabilitation Committee Bassam al Hallaq and others, after interrogating them for several hours at Al- Qishleh Police Centre, in the Old City district of Jerusalem.

Since the early hours of the morning, Muslims worshipers from Jerusalem and pre-1948 Palestine came into al-Aqsa Mosque yards where they spread out in educational circles, reading verses from the Quran and defending the mosque from settlers break-ins with Takbeer.

The aggression of the Israeli occupation against Al-Aqsa guards, as well as staff from the Islamic Waqf, has escalated dramatically, whereupon Israeli forces detained and deported nine guards and employees.

Furthermore, Israeli police have been keeping al-Aqsa Mosque guard Fadi Alayyan jailed since the last June.

Hordes of fanatic Israeli settlers stormed on Sunday morning the holy al-Aqsa Mosque via the Maghareba Gate. The break-in was carried out under heavy shield by Israeli occupation policemen and special intervention troops.

The Israeli assailants performed sacrilegious rituals and yelled anti-Muslim slogans. The peaceful Muslim worshipers kept chanting “Allah is the Greatest” in protest at the break-in.

A member of the al-Aqsa supervision staff was kidnapped by the occupation forces during the assault. The guard, identified as Luay Abu al-Saad, was kidnapped from the Asbat Gate on his way to his workplace at al-Aqsa Mosque.

Abu Saad was deliberately hit by an Israeli electric tractor in Ramadan month and was rushed to hospital for urgent treatment.

Meanwhile, a group of Muslim women maintained vigil outside of al-Aqsa in protest at being banned from entering the site.

Extremist rabbi Yehuda Glick has incited against the guards of the Aqsa Mosque and the Islamic Waqf Authority in Occupied Jerusalem and called on the Israeli government to take control of the Islamic holy site immediately.

This came in a lengthy speech he delivered in the Knesset, in which he called the Aqsa Mosque "the temple mount", and urged Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu to impose what he labelled as Israel's sovereignty over the holy site.

Glick, who was recently appointed by the right-wing Likud party as a Knesset member, waged vicious incitement against the Aqsa Mosque's guards in particular, describing them as "bullies and rioters", and called on the Israeli police to keep them away from him.

He also launched a scathing attack on the Islamic Waqf Authority in Jerusalem and called for revoking its jurisdiction over the Aqsa Mosque, warning that the [alleged] temple mount would remain under the "gentiles' occupation" if there was no immediate action to change it.

In a related development, the Israeli occupation police intend to file indictments against three Aqsa Mosque employees, namely, Hamza al-Nabali, Hamza Addisi, and Ra'ed Zaghir, for allegedly assaulting visitors at the holy site.

The Israeli police already issued banishment orders against eight employees working for the Awqaf authority and the Aqsa Mosque. Two of them are still in detention.

For its part, Jordan, which is responsible for the Aqsa Mosque, has intervened to stop any Israeli interference in the work of the Mosque guards.

Jordanian awqaf official Abdullah al-Abbadi said the government initiated diplomatic contacts with its Israeli counterpart to protect the legal rights of Aqsa Mosque employees and guards and to prevent any Israeli interference in their duties.

Israeli Special Forces Tuesday morning arrested the director of the renovation committee of the Aqsa Mosque, Bassam al-Hallaq, along with three of its employees and took them to a detention and investigation center in the Old City of Occupied Jerusalem.

This followed the Israeli order of halting renovation works of the Dome of the Rock which was refused by al-Hallaq who said it is of the business of Islamic Awqaf only.

Meanwhile, the guards of the Aqsa Mosque thwarted extremist settlers’ attempts to perform Talmudic rituals at the Aqsa Mosque.

In a similar context, Israeli police hindered repair works at the Aqsa Mosque in a step that was condemned by the Awqaf Department.

Israeli soldiers kidnapped, on Tuesday morning, four workers of the Waqf and Islamic Affairs Department, in the Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied Jerusalem, after ordering them to stop maintenance work in the Dome of the Rock.

Soldiers and extremists also stormed the courtyards of the mosque.

The Waqf Department said the soldiers kidnapped the head of the Reconstruction Committee Bassam al-Hallaq, in addition to work supervisor Issa Salhab, and two workers identified as Baha’ Abu Sbeih and Saed Abu Sneina, and took them to an interrogation center in Jerusalem.

The Department stated that the soldiers ordered the workers to stop all rehabilitation and maintenance work in the Dome of the Rock, but the workers refused to do so while al-Hallaq told them that this work falls solely under the Jurisdiction of the Ministry of Waqf and Islamic Affairs.

In related news, dozens of soldiers and Israeli extremists stormed the courtyards of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, after the army assaulted the guards and many Muslim worshipers, in order to facilitate the provocative tour into the holy site.

The attack comes only one day before the so-called “Temple Destruction Anniversary,” while many extremist Israeli groups are organizing massive marches into the Al-Aqsa, starting on Thursday.